Legal Commentary

Lou Dobbs' Undocumented Worker Problem

By Jeralyn

The Nation has a feature article alleging Lou Dobbs employed undocumented workers.

Based on a yearlong investigation, including interviews with five immigrants who worked without papers on his properties, The Nation and the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute have found that Dobbs has relied for years on undocumented labor for the upkeep of his multimillion-dollar estates and the horses he keeps for his 22-year-old daughter, Hillary, a champion show jumper.

From The Nation's editorial: Make it Legal:

On any given day, we've all probably eaten fruit harvested by undocumented workers or meat they butchered. These workers also make possible the lifestyles enjoyed by wealthy Americans like Dobbs and Whitman, with their estates and grounds and stables. How these millions of workers could be extracted from their jobs and deported without causing massive disruption not only to their lives but to the entire economy defies the imagination. Yet this is what Dobbs demands with his call for ever tougher enforcement.

The solution:[More...]

If immigrants had a straightforward path to legalization, they could step out of the shadows of the US economy and stand with American workers to demand decent treatment for all. That might make it slightly more expensive for Lou Dobbs to maintain his multimillion-dollar properties—but it's a price he ought to pay.

Lou Dobbs responds:

"The only person who would have been an illegal in any context would have been a landscaper who was working for the contractor working on my house in Florida. That may have happened," admits the former CNN anchor and fierce anti-illegal immigration crusader. Dobbs is a frequent critic of companies that hire illegal workers.

"But that isn't my employee nor is it the reason I would have contracted with that landscaper. And to suggest I hired the person who is illegal if, indeed she can document there was someone illegal, is an absurdity," said Dobbs. "I have hired no illegal immigrants, no company of mine has hired illegal immigrants and that is the essential fact."

Full post as published by TalkLeft on October 08, 2010 (boomark / email).